Frost Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Has anyone on here got experience rooting mobile phones? My friend is going to give me his S3 so I can upgrade from my S2. I understand you have to 'root' it and to also avoid 'bricking' your phone. I'm prepared to do it myself but wondering if there is any top tips and advice I should be aware of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I rooted my HTC Desire. Rooting was more complicated then than it is now, but I just looked around for a good guide and followed that. Depending on whether the S3 has been updated recently or not, you might be able to use something called Towelroot to root it. It's literally just an app that you download in APK format, put on the phone, run, then that's it - rooting done. Is there any particular reason why you're rooting it? I had an S3 myself and I didn't feel any particular need to root it. I did use a different launcher, but that's only because I'm not the biggest fan of TouchWiz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Thanks Steve, I thought as much. The reason is that my S2 has a 3 sim in it (sim only contract) and his S3 has/was a T-Mobile sim contract. I assume you can't just put a sim in from a different carrier and it works? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 It depends. Places like Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U sell contract phones that are unlocked. If the phone came direct from the carrier than chances are it's locked to a network, but the only way to know for sure would be to try it. Depending on the version of Android running on the S3, you may be able to unlock it without rooting it. Type this into the dialler: - *#197328640# A menu will pop up, then select these menu items: - UMTS DEBUG SCREEN PHONE CONTROL NETWORK LOCK PERSO SHA256 OFF Then wait for 30 seconds, press the menu button on the phone to go back one step, then select this option: - NW NV LOCK DATA INITIALLIZ Then wait 60 seconds and reboot the phone. If no menu pops up or that simply doesn't unlock the phone, then it's because the software on the phone has been updated and they've removed the option as people got wise to it, in which case your options are to pay a shop that does phone unlocking and have them do it, or root the phone and unlock it yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 If that doesn't work I'll try it myself, thanks Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottie(the)goonie Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 I rooted my S3 a couple years ago, only because I wanted to disable bloatware and certain startup processes (but not actually delete it). Once I rooted, I was able to use Titanium Backup to do this. I used something called Odin, but I forgot the process. I remember watching many YouTube videos and that made it basically step-by-step easy (had to download a few files I think).Just make sure that whatever you use is current with your phone's Operating System because they are not one size fits all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 Thanks goonie. I got the S3 today...it's a fucking micro sim! Gonna have to sand mine down now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Take your SIM into a phone shop. They'll have a SIM cutter so they can chop it down to size. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 I did mine with a pair of scissors, it works fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 I used a micro SIM in a normal SIM slot. Held in place OK. It only fell out of position once a fortnight or so so not annoying at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 I got a free replacement micro SIM from Three, huzzah! Installed towelroot from here: https://towelroot.com/ Ran into an error as phone was not supported so went here: http://www.naldotech.com/how-to-fix-towelroot-phone-isnt-supported-problem/but it doesn't do anything when I tell it to root. Two hours later I'm no further on, fuck phones and fuck technology. FUCK OFF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rasteri Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 TBH I'd just install cyanogenmod onto it. It's a version of android that comes without all samsung's bloatware crap, and it comes pre-rooted by default. My cyanogenmod s3 runs a million times faster than my mate's S3 with the default OS. Installing it is ridiculously easy. You just run an app on your phone and another on your PC and that's it. http://www.cyanogenmod.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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